Um, You Didn't Happen To Be Cruising, Did You?

from the good-enough-for-government-work dept

Who knew? Apparently cruise control kills! You thought you were being a good citizen, conserving fuel by using your car more efficiently and avoiding varying speeds that can cause traffic problems and accidents. But, the reality was you were causing all sorts of problems -- at least in Belgium. The Belgian government has decided to outlaw cruise control on certain stretches of road in an attempt to reduce accidents. Now, public safety is an admirable goal; but it is unrealistic to think that making cruise control illegal will be of much help. Enforcement would seem to be nearly impossible. To "catch" a driver in the act of breaking the law would require an accident in which the state of the cruise control during the crash has to be knowable after it has occurred -- or would require a really honest driver. While the rise of car black boxes makes collecting vehicle state information possible, once you've reached the point where a black box reading is needed, you'd think that the problem was much bigger than someone relying too much on cruise control. Speaking of which, shouldn't speed and recklessness laws cover the effects of using cruise control inappropriately?

The whole story

News sites never post the whole story :), After a very serious car/truck accident involving a big truck with cruise control last year killing 5 poeple that where about 23 years of age. The goverment dicided to ban the use of cruise control. Hope this makes the story clear..

Less rigid solution?

How about starting with an education campaign, explaining why cruise control is dangerous on certain stretches of roads that are really twisty etc.? Post warning signs at these areas. That might be as effective or more-so than just making it illegal. People don't follow authority without reason well, just look at obedience to speed limits when they are posted too low for the road conditions.

Sooner or later someone will dream up a tech solution to shut off cruise control in certain areas. As lawyer-happy as the computers in new car's are, I'm surprised cruise control doesn't stop working when the windshield wipers are on.